Are you thirsty? Does your soul need refreshing?  Has this year, this season been one that has drained your reserves?  Do you need a drink?  A good washing?  There is a treasure waiting on this last day of the feast.

We’ve been walking slowly through the Feast of Tabernacles.  It began on September 29th at sundown with the Feast of Trumpets, announcing the coming of the Bridegroom and the sounding of the Last Trumpet.  Then it was on to Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, the most solemn feast day in the year. Jews believe that the record books of all their good deeds and bad ones are open before God on that day and they will stand before Him, face-to-face in judgment.  Much repentance and restitution precede this solemn day to make sure their lives are clean before Him.

We, as born-again believers in Yeshua, already stand forgiven because of the price He paid with His own blood on the cross, to wash us free of condemnation and sin. Repentance is a part of our everyday lives, but we still stand with our Jewish friends and others who don’t know Yeshua and pray for their awakening and salvation.

The great culmination of this Feast of Tabernacles began five days after the Day of Atonement — last Sunday night and it will end on Monday night this week.  For those celebrating in traditional ways, it has been a week of sleeping under the stars in their three-sided sukkah’s and feasting at night with family and friends.  It’s the celebration of God’s care for Israel in the wilderness and the end of the year’s harvest.  It is also a celebration of God’s faithfulness.

The last day of the feast holds particular significance. It is believed that God would decide the amount of rainfall for Israel in the coming year.  Since they were an agrarian society dependent on sunshine and rain to produce a good crop, rainfall was very important.  On this eighth day, set aside by God for a special closing gathering, the Jewish people recite special prayers for rain.

In Yeshua’s time, the High Priest would draw water from the Pool of Siloam and carry it up to the Temple with a joyous procession.  The people would celebrate with singing, dancing and rejoicing, reciting praises from Psalms 113-118 and 120-134, and chanting the Scripture from Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation (Yeshua).”

It was at this key time when the High Priest poured out the water he’ d carried from the Pool of Siloam on the altar as a sacrificial offering of thanksgiving, that Yeshua called out to the crowd.

It is described in John 7:37-38 

“On the last and greatest day of the festival [Sukkot], Yeshua (Jesus) stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 

As they poured out the sacrifice of water in hopes of getting adequate rainfall, Yeshua was offering them the never-ending water of eternal life.

There was an earlier incident when Yeshua met a woman at the well… John 4:7-15

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

And in Revelation 21:6-7 And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

Here it is in the Amplified: And He [further] said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega ( I am the Aleph and the Tav), the Beginning and the End. (I am God who was before time, Who spoke the universe into existence and I am the End, the mark the seal, the title deed of covenant.  I am your surety.) To the thirsty, I [Myself] will give water without price from the fountain (springs) of the water of Life.

Then in the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

And in the Amplified: The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened]; and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost.

Are you thirsty? Does your soul need refreshing?  Has this year, this season been one that has drained your reserves?  Do you need a drink?  A good washing?  There is a Fountain of Living Water that never runs dry.

One day Yeshua called my name and showed me some of this living water:

Mary Ellen? He called.

Yes, Lord.

Will you follow Me?

Yes, Lord.

I see Jesus turn and walk down a well worn narrow path to a stream.  He bends down and scoops up some water with His with hand and lets it run through His fingers.

“Do you see this, Beloved?”

“Yes, Lord, I see it.  What is it You want me to see?”

“That it is there for the taking.  The water of this river, this stream, is always here just waiting for you to come and partake.”

“What is the water, Lord?”

“The water of My Presence.  It takes determination and choosing to come, but My Presence is always available.”

“Just as the sound of this water tumbling over the rocks and tree limbs flows endlessly, unraveling the tension of your soul, My Presence does the same without a whisper of sound.”

“Just pause, determine to pause, frequently and breathe in My Presence.  It will unravel your soul and wash you with My peace.”

Later, I see a waterfall pouring out of heaven.  I see someone holding out a cup to receive.

Then I hear Him say, “You are holding out your cup and I am filling it.  It is living water and it will bring life wherever it is shared.”

The Fountain of Living Water lives in us to refresh us and wash us.  It is living water to be shared.  And as He said, “It will bring life.”

As we end this wonderful fall feast of the Lord’s, let us take time to thank Him for the Living Water, let’s not forget He is always available, nor forget that we always have an abundant supply to share.  No other god gives Life.

Shalom♥